The Shaanxi History
Museum is located 4
kilometers south of
Xi’an, with the Big Wild
Goose Pagoda to the
east. It was originally
inside the Museum of
Stone Tablets. Later,
because of its great
amount of relics and the
small exhibition rooms
in the Museum of Stone
Tablets, which were not
big enough to exhibit
them, the Museum was
moved to the present
place. It was
established under the
personal concern of
former Permier Zhou
Enlai and officially
opened to public in
1991.

The Museum is an
architectural complex in
the Tang Dynasty style,
covering an area of
65,000 square meters and
with a construction area
of about 60,000 square
meters. The whole museum
was built in a closed
style with modern
management. It is the
second largest museum
next to the Imperial
Palace Museum, which is
the largest museum in
China. In order to keep
the relics safe, a set
of closed facilities of
prevention and
auti-theft system has
been installed. The
closed circuit
television system was
installed to monitor
every corner to the
museum and a set of
infrared detection
system has been
installed to control
every square centimeter
of the exhibition of the
halls. In case when any
anomalous event occurs,
video copiers will truly
get scenes recorded
without delay.

The Shaanxi History
Museum collects a
largest amount of tomb
frescoes of Tang
Dynasty. For better
protection and
preservation of these
rare relics, the store
chambers were so
designed that they were
built on rails and
enclosed on all sides,
with constant
temperature and moisture
but without ultraviolet
radiation. The mural
paintings are hung in
charmbers that run on
rail. Press a button,
the chambers will silde
out and back gently.
Such design is indeed
ingenious.

It has a collection of
370,000 pieces of
historical relics, among
which the most
characteristic ones are
the bronze wares of the
Shang and Zhou
Dynasties, the pottery
figures of different
dynasties, the tomb
frescoes, gold and
silver utensils. There
are over 2,000 pieces of
bronze wares in the
museum. Quite a few of
them are national-grade
rare relics, such as a
bronze tripot of solid
built called "Wai Shu
Ding" and a four legged
bronze wine vessel of
unique shape. They have
brought much influence
to the field of
historical relics.

Pottery figure is a kind
of important relic which
left over to us from
different dynasties in
Chinese history. They
have been discovered
constantly all over
China. But it is a rare
case that the unearthed
pottery figures in
Shaanxi cover the
dynasties from the
Spring and Autumn Period
down to the Ming and
Qing Dynasties. We
cannot help to acclaim
them the acme of
perfection for not only
their large quantity but
also their variation
from dynasty to dynasty.

Ever since 1952, more
than 1,000 square meters
of Tang Dynasty tomb
frescoes has been taken
off completely in a
special method. It has
gained high admiration
and fame for its
quantity and excellence.
Taking "Fresco of
Foreign Diplomatic
Envoys, Fresco of Polo
Game on Horse-backs,
Fresco of Maids of
Honour" as an example,
they are not only of
very high art value, but
also non-fungible data
of historical documents
for the study of social
activities, cultural
life and clothing
customs of the Tang
Dynasty.

The collection of gold
and silver vessels from
the Tang Dynasty in the
museum totals up to over
900 pieces, which make
it the topmost museum
all over the country.
Among them, the most
well-known ones are the
gold and silver wares
unearthed from the pit
at Hejia Village in
Xi’an in 1970. Such as
"the ox-headed agate
cup" and "the imperial
gilded pot with two
punched horses
attached", ect. were
ingeniously designed and
showed the ingenuity of
the designers.

At the time when the
museum was opened to
public, more than 2,200
pieces of rare
historical relics were
requizited from other
places throughout
Shaanxi Province, which
made the museum even
more splendid and
well-know. Those include
the Gilded Bamboo Shaped
Bronze Smother Stove
unearthed from Maoling,
the Bronze
Swan-goose-and-fish Lamp
unearthed in Shenmu,
ect.

The magnificent of the
architecture,
first-class facilities,
rich and colorful relics
comprise the special
characters of the
Shaanxi History Museum.
And it is attracting
more and more visitors
from both home and
abroad in a completely
new look.